Star Trek 10 “Through A Glass Darkly”

Review by havok1977 — April 16, 2012 @ 4:09 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

Review by LastSurvivor — April 22, 2012 @ 12:16 pm

BionicBob, probably the most prolific faneditor out there at the moment, brings us his first and maybe only edit on The Next Generation Star Trek franchise in the form of possibly the worst Star Trek film of all, Nemesis. Okay, that dubious honor might actually go to JJ Abrams’ over-rated reboot, but hey, before I start a war let’s get onto Bob’s Through a Glass Darkly ;)

It’s difficult to know where to start with the problems which plague Nemesis. I think Bob actually puts it very well in his “About this Edit” feature, in that here in Stuart Baird was a director who knew little of the Star Trek universe, pandering to the main stars prima donna style requirements within the script to keep a happy ship (dune buggy racing anyone? Data singing? Um, no thanks). Also, what’s evident here is that for the final voyage of TNG cast, there is a distinct lack of that “family” feel which one has come to love and expect from the Trek universe. Perhaps this darker style of Star Trek just doesn’t work? Maybe that’s why I don’t like Abrams’ version too? I digress.

Thankfully, Bob has certainly taken the full blooded fanediting approach here. A massive 32 minutes of footage is ruthlessly cut, leaving us with a fast-paced 82 minutes (about 76 if you take out the incredibly long end-credits) of treachery, deceit, adventure and a chance to see in Shinzon a darker flip-side of our beloved Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The decision to remove the horrible B4 concept is this edit’s most obvious saving grace and it’s executed with some skill. Some reviews have pointed towards the awkward way in which a flashback is inserted to explain the “beaming device” which Data places on Picard, but I take my hat off to Bob here, as he pulls it off perfectly. I’ve seen Bob try and use some flashback-style techniques before, but this is by far his most natural and best attempt.

Of course, trimming Nemesis down to this extent does result in it feeling like a feature-length TV episode and I actually would have liked Bob to have applied the same TV-style fade outs and title sequence which he used so well on his classic Trek edits.

Unfortunately, as impressive and enjoyable as Through A Glass Darkly is, it’s still unable to completely rescue the film. The trimmed wedding scene is still horribly scripted and acted with about as much warmth and sincerity as a wet space blanket. Baird’s direction remains flat (surprising when you consider his overall solid filmography as an editor) and the uninspired performances from nearly all the cast make you wonder if First Contact was but a dream.

Still, some of the scenes between Shinzon and Picard hint at what could have been and the ever reliable Jerry Goldsmith was still able to shine with another impressive music score. The use of the original ending is also a definite improvement, despite the obvious drop in quality, and gives some hope of further adventures with Picard and a new number one.

Audio – would get a solid 9/10. Only when the Enterprise was banking away (the second time) to go into warp did it feel as if the sound was a little out of synch.

Picture quality – 10/10. As good as the original DVD from what I could tell.

Editing – 9/10. Nearly perfect for me, but I’m sure Bob used the same shot of the Enterprise going into warp twice? If I’m wrong, I apologise!

Overall – An excellent attempt to rescue a pretty poor movie, Through A Glass Darkly sees BionicBob at the top of his game. I personally think it’s a difficult challenge to make cuts of some 30 minutes and still manage to have a movie which manages to hold together in its storytelling – but Bob manages it here very well. So, whereas the original movie I would give 5/10, Through a Glass Darkly would receive 7/10. As an overall score for the way in which this was fanedited however, I would give this 9/10.

If this is the final Trek edit for BionicBob, he’s gone out in more style and honor than the TNG cast did on the final day of shooting of Nemesis. :)

Review by Vultural — April 2, 2012 @ 10:19 pm

This is a great improvement over the original.
I pulled up my copy of Nemesis beforehand and could barely sit through it. The pacing was deadly, and the narrative was cluttered.
Bionic Bob trimmed out the fat, and this movie goes!

The audio seemed fine to my ears. The video edits were smooth. The only “clinker” was the added bit at the end, though it was fun, nevertheless.

I am not a fan of STNG (prefer Voyager), but BB’s version of Nemesis is a winner, and I can recommend it to fans who tired of the series long ago.

8/10

Review by Sunarep — March 24, 2012 @ 5:09 PM

Man sometimes this site feels like a strange therapy holding together my childhood. Like Alien 4, Phantom Menace and so many more movies I liked Nemesis in its original form because I was not really very critical of it. I loved the fight against the scimitar and I have to confess that even the idiotic argo sequence was “cool” – maybe I was the target ADD-demographic back then who was responsible for this unmotivated action scene

Over the years Nemesis has not held up quite that well and I was not all that excited about it but now we have Bionicbob coming to rescue my childhood and give me a star trek: nemesis that I can watch without constantly rolling my eyes.

The edit is very bold and goes where no Nemesis edit has gone before – completely ripping out B4 is a bold move and it often takes bold moves from faneditors to finally make a significant improvement when a movie is that despised.

Without the action sequences it feels much more like a 2-part television episode with incredibly big budget. There is a lot of discussion and exposition and it feels like two predators circling each other until the battle breaks loose.

The edit moves at a fantastic pace, keeps all of the good stuff while taking care of annoying things (like not showing Tom Hardy on the photo Picard is looking at, thank god that is gone and what’s left is the discussion).
The finale is pretty much the same and while looking nice it still feels very “worn out”, it is a story about death and darkness and at the end you are quite exhausted that the star trek universe has become such a dark place.
Naturally most of the contrivances which no fanedit will ever fix are still there – Riker fighting Hellboy over a bottomless pit for the obligatory Riker-action-scene, the transporter not working even thought there is still the Captain’s Yacht, Picard playing Quake in God-mode when he goes to Shinzon’s ship

Overall this edit is very good there are just a few things I was not that happy with:

- when the enterprise leaves from Romulus the sound effect doesn’t really match the dynamic we see on screen
- Tom Hardy doing a Lurtz and pulling the metalbar through his body, necessary for continuity still atrocious
- the final scene has notably lower quality due to the fact that it is a deleted scene
- the safety-belt-chair gag is pretty dumb/not very star-trek-esque
- the 1-person-beaming-plotdevice is still very unbelievable

SPOILERS for the beaming device:

In the original the thing already feels forced into the story by being conveniently mentioned in the second act. But at least when Data uses it one knows what function it has. In the edit it bascially comes out of the blue and we are left with a “what the hell just happened”. Bob tries to smoothen this jarring device by showing us a flashback after the explosion explaining what it is – which actually helps a bit and is probably the best way to get rid of the B4 storyline.
Yet the flashback – while having some emotional resonance because of the line “we’ll find a way out together (loosely quoted)” – is a bit confusing: we have never seen this scene, did it happen? if it happened what did picard mean by finding a way together?
It throws in a bunch of questions to a silent moment where one should just mourn Data

END SPOILER

But overall except the beaming gripe this edit is a really enjoyable treat and I thank Bob once again for his fantastic work on all his edits.

Overall I enjoyed this edit of "Nemesis". Much of the filler subplots are gone (always a good thing) and what we're left is a tight film that moves along nicely. My main criticism with the film was towards the end when...

*** SPOILER ***

Picard is returned to the Enterprise by a device Data puts on him. This is shortly after the transporter fries and is told "that's it". Now, it's been a while since I've seen the original, so it's possible this transporter device is of Romulan design, but unless I missed it we never see Data ever actually pick this device up.

My second issue is after the Romulan ship blows up and Data is killed, we see Picard remembering Data giving him a data cartridge. Not only have we never seen this scene before (thus no reference as to what is actually happening) Data is also in non-starfleet clothes adding to the confusion. Again, perhaps I missed something while being distracted by my kids running around, but think if these scenes were explained I would have remembered. Because of this one scene I docked the visual editing a star as I think it would have worked better without.

The picture quality is just a bit below DVD quality with macro-blocking apparent in some scenes. While not terrible I would have liked a slightly higher quality. Adding to the lower rating of A/V Quality is that the audio is only stereo and not 5.1 as I've become accustomed.

Minus these minor issues I do think this edit is the better version of "Nemesis" and, if you're a Star Trek fan, it's worth checking out.